1. Weekends are sacred. I don't want to spend the few family days that I have browsing round shops. I want to spend them at theme parks, playgrounds, crafting, baking, pretending to be a princess... You know the thing. When I shop online I can arrange for parcels to be delivered to me at work, or at the weekend so I don't have to brave the shops with two children in tow.
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| My parcel stash - my home shopping legacy! |
2. Ease of return. Most of the online mail order companies I have ever used are incredibly easy to return items to if they are wrong, or if they don't fit. If I shop for clothes for the girls in a high street store I almost always end up having to find time to go back another day to make a return. Some online retailers offer free returns, others even pay the postage costs for you but in general it is easier for me to get to a post office than a shop!
3. The Internet is home to an amazing array of small retailers. One of the things I enjoy most about being a blogger is that I get to find out about lots of small and exciting retailers of clothes, toys and baby products. The rise of online shopping means that I have a much wider range of products to choose from and I can find out about and buy from talented individuals from other parts of the country such as Made By Jude with whom I previously could never have done business.
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| Holly modelling her handmade apron from Made by Jude |
4. Availability. Online I can almost always find out before I commit to buy, whether or not the item I want is available. This means a lot to me. In the days before online shopping I can think of many, many situations in which I parted with money, or placed an order, only to find out that there would be a delay of days, if not weeks... Sometimes the convenience of being able to check stock availability means you can buy a present or an emergency item of holiday clothing with only a day or twos notice.
5. Range. If you shop online with a big mail order catalogue or a big high street brand name then you have access to their full range of products when they may only stock a small range in store. as a very tall woman with very big feet I usually find that stores don't regularly stock my sizes but the same brand online will have their full range available.
For these reasons, I'd say that since returning to work in January, about 90% of my non-grocery shopping takes place online.
NOTE: This is a collaborative post with K&Co but that doesn't stop it being fun to read
